Real Cow or Ordinary Cow?

If anything, Pattu has a really wild imagination. Recently Pattu was telling her grandma not to go near a cow, so grandma asked, 'why?'

Pattu: ..because... (trying to think up something on the fly)...it is not an ordinary cow......it is a 'reaaallll cow'...
Gran: What is a 'real cow'?
Pattu: (again trying to think up something on the fly)...hmmm.. it has a switch on its belly ... and when it presses the switches it will become a crocodile ... (encouraged by the raised eyebrows of people around) ...and again if you press it, it will become a snake and eat you...that's why it is a 'real cow'...

So folks, watch out for the 'reaaallll cow'!!

The Battle of Water-Loo

Two years back, I met a mom who moved her son to a different school only because the previous school did not have decent toilet facilities. While there were enough toilets and in good condition, they ran out of water quite frequently. Now, we are not talking about some corporation school here. This is a fairly well known middle class+ school. The boy (who was only 5 yrs at that point of time) stopped drinking water so that he doesn't have to go to the toilet.
"I want him to be healthy first - studies can come later" was her opinion.

Recently I was talking to a bunch of older kids (10 yrs+) and they said something similar. They avoided drinking water so that they don't have to go to a dirty toilet.

"Thank god PT is the last period. After playing we'll feel so thirsty and we have to drink lots of water, since it is the last period, we can come back home.."
"It really stinks and during intervals it is so crowded"
 and apparently the teacher would, "say something in front of the whole class if we want to go during class, it will be embarrassing"

This again is a fairly sought after school. I can't believe that schools that take so much money in the name of fees should have such poor facilities. Wonder why most parents don't think this important enough to take up during PTA meets.

I've always wondered why women in particular consumed very little water during the day. Most women I know drink less than a litre per day which is abysmally low. Some of them atleast push themselves consciously to drink more but it takes a lot of effort.
I can't help but attribute this to poor public toilet facilities in our country. I've noticed that even some shops do not have such facilities - when I asked the female staff what they do when they have to use the loo, she simply said that they 'finish the business before leaving home'! Imagine the plight of these women when they have their periods! Or for that matter even a stomach upset.
And another shop which was in a shopping complex had the loo on the terrace and again the women never ventured up there since men were always hanging out there. Men obviously pee where they like so they are hardly affected.

I'm remeinded of a social research project that I did many years back. This was among the tea leaf pickers in rural Ooty. I was shocked to learn that it is a taboo for women to go too many times during the day. It apparently means, 'lack of control/ discipline' on the woman's part - they have to 'finish the job before sunrise'. An older woman then told me that if they have to go while at work, they have to go into the forest (the thickets nearby) since there are no toilets and it is not safe for women to stray away from the group and wander off alone. I guess it was the women's way of conditioning to save themselves from bigger dangers. This was almost 10 years back and I hope things have changed for good now... though I wonder...

On a lighter note, recently when I visited a public loo, I was really surprised to find it very clean only to realise later that the door doesn't lock!

Vanity...

...thy name is Pattu

Pattu obviously noticed that I've been taking pictures (though occassionally) of things she draws, scribbles, cards and crafts that she makes, etc. Recently she did something that really didn't warrant a picture, atleast I didn't think so... (...... what kind of mom am I?? well, it takes all kinds...)
..but then, Pattu trillls...,"Amma, see this...wow!!! It is Wowwww!!! no amma?? Take a picture amma"

...time to take stock...

Discovered...

Lydie's @ ECR: A nice quiet place for a lazy weekend... good continental food, delicious desserts... the Indian fare is just so-so...

Bikaner Bhojanalaya @ Valmiki Nagar - for authentic home cooked rajasthani food, finger licking good... a no frills place, reminded me of Lalitha's, Bangalore... smaller scale though...

And.... had the Pav Bhaji at Novelty Tea House at Mint Street, Sowcarpet
Worth a try...

Hide and Seek

Pattu is a total goof when playing this game. She still does an ostrich every now and then, tries to hide behind sheer curtains, under a baby cushion and giggles loudly while still hiding. Once, when it was her turn to play catcher, she looked around (she's a goof even while trying to find) just for a second and called out ,
"G akka, where are you?"

Since G akka is not a goof, this question met with silence and pattu repeated it a few times, the tone becoming more demanding with every repetition. Finally the frustrated Pattu throws her arms in the air and says with a sigh,

"I've no clue where you are...and now it looks like even you don't know where you are!"

to which G akka burst out laughing and ended up getting caught!

Out of focus

I happened to watch a bharatnatyam dance show on TV recently - a family friend's daughter was participating. It was a contest with a few theme rounds and had Sudha Chandran as the host and another dancer as the guest judge.

I was surprised to see that the cameraman had absolutely no idea how to capture the dance- the camera angle kept changing every few seconds which was not only a strain on the eyes, but also kept shifting the audience perspective continuously leaving them confused.

What really annoyed me was that the camera wandered, even as the dancers were performing, to focus on the judge's bangles, the host's elaborate bindi, their sarees and ther smiles. All these were very pretty indeed but distracting the audience from the performanc itself.

Finally when the 30 minutes show ended, I only remembered the bindi, sarees, bangles and a few disconnected snippets of the dance!

Wondering if all shows are like this one ...

From the horse's mouth

It is a routine for me to ask Pattu what happened at school and for her to tell me that she played with her friends and then ate snacks and got back home. Some days she gets punishment for running about in class, making noise and such things. 
The updates rarely go beyond these and sometimes, just to hear from the horse's mouth, I employ some tactics like these:


Amma: but what were you doing when B was drawing?
Pattu: But B was not drawing
Amma: So, what was she doing?
Pattu: She was crying
Amma: Why?
Pattu: Because she got hurt
Amma: What were you doing?
Pattu: I was not crying
Amma: ok, but what were you doing??
Pattu: I told B not to cry


...how insightful!!
But then, amma is not the kind who'll give up...


Amma: So, what did you draw at school today?
Pattu: I drew thunder, lightning and lot of rain...and a storm
Amma: (not giving up still) what did your teacher say?
Pattu: She got wet in the rain


...sigh!
Finally the last ditch effort


Amma: Did you learn numbers or alphabets in school today?
Pattu: nothing
Amma: you sang?
Pattu: No
Amma: you danced?
Pattu: No amma
Amma: So, what did you do?
Pattu: Nothing amma, I was just a good girl 
Amma: What did you do to be a good girl?
Pattu: I played with my friends and finished my snacks


These days, I'm just happy to hear that she was a good girl.

Candles

tried my hand at candle making... here are a few... floating candles and some coloured ones...

www.drop-of-sun.blogspot.com

Impressions

It is funny how some impressions stick in your mind forever. The kind of impressions I am talking about here are not the deep meaningful variety, but some really silly associations instead.

I bumped into my brother's friend B recently - I couldn't really place him (the last time I saw him was as a schoolboy) but the moment he said, "I'm B, M's classmate..", I was almost about to say, 'yeah, the B of knife fame', but bit my tongue in time.
The story goes like this - B had some vegetable carving project at school and he wanted a serrated knife which was rare to come by those days and hence borrowed ours. This one just happened to be my mom's favourite and came all the way from Dubai and hence a prized possession. I didn't quite appreciate my mom's attachment with the knife at that time but I do now. Among the set of knives, I have my favourite and wouldn't let anyone tamper with it. Somehow, the veggies under attack seem to behave wonderfully with that particular knife. Anyway, let me come back to the point.

My mom must have had this ominous foreboding about lending the knife and she told the bro a million times that she needs it back the very next day and in perfect condition. As things turn out in most of such cases, the knife never found its way back into our house and my mom has neither forgotten this inciden nor has she forgiven the bro and his friend for this disaster. Everytime a tomato rebelled under the other knives, my mom lamented her fate loudly enough for the bro to notice. This, of course tormented my bro a good deal and provided me a lot of entertainment.

It has been a good 15+ years now and I was curious to find out if my mom still remembered it. So, when I got back home, I casually mentioned that I bumped into B. Quite predictably, she went on, "oh, the one who never returned my knife..." Poor B who is now a respectable family man and very successful in his career would be shocked to know that he still holds a criminal charge!

This was promptly reported to the bro over chat the same evening :D

It is funny how certain impressions stick in your mind forever....

The Zlooksh

The Zlooksh By Dominique Demers            Pattu Rating: 4.4                                                                        Zachary looks like any other normal boy but for his wild wild imagination. He believes himself to be the captain of a rocket ship and when he tires of such responsibility, he retires to his tree house which is in the tallest branch of the tallest tree. Sometimes when he is bored, he dives down to the ocean floor to meet his marine friends.

So, when Mrs Davey, his classteacher askes the class to draw their favourite animal, Zachary gets busy. So busy that he misses lunch, play and all the other activities for the day. He is surrounded by papers and his friends can't contain their curiosity. Mrs. Davy offers to help, but then Zachary's favourite animal is the Zlooksh and Mrs Davey is certain that there's no such animal on planet earth! However, Mrs Davey sure is in for a surprise....

Pattu and Buc (another figment of her imagination), I'm sure would be more than happy in the company of Zachary and Zlooksh. No wonder Zachary struck a chord with Pattu.... and I must say that the Zlooksh looks so adorable!

A Potty Post

Pattu is peeing and I peep in (just the routine hygeine checks) and GASP!! She is peeing into the potty like a boy!!

To my, "What are you doing!!", she threw me confused look as if to say, "What else can one do at the potty"?

Amma: Whya re you peeing like that?

Pattu: Because it is easier...

Amma: Who taught you that?

Pattu: The boys in my school pee like this only and it is easy...

Amma - who is by now struggling to arrest all the thoughts from running wild, meekly says,

"But girls should not pee like that ok.. you have to always sit.." and 'gulp'-ingly adds "..and it is shame shame to look at others peeing ok...it is not good" ..and hopes she won't point out that I did exactly that just now...

Pattu: "But why amma?"

For which I scrambled a few hygiene points hoping she'll remember...

....ooofff! The kind of shocks!!

Cars, it is...

...the latest (and the longest) of Pattu's obsessions. Off she goes rattling out the names of all the cars that she sees on the road and she is almost always right! My categorisation stops with size, shape and colour, the details just elude me.

This obsession reached its feverish intensity when Pattu, running 104.5 and shivering, on the way to the doc despite the chattering teeth goes, ssa-ffa-rrri, bbo-lle-rro, ffi-ess-tta, ppu-nnt-tto and so on.

After a picnic to Guindy Children's park, I ask Pattu what she saw there and guess what she saw? She saw a Honda City, an Indica, a Xylo, and ... you get it... I had to then rephrase the question to ask, "did you see any animals" and then came a few names... rather reluctantly...

Moral of the story: You will only see what you want to see!

Our Harvest for this Harvest Festival...

.... is this... it always tastes sweeter and special when it is from your own backyard... and it ripened just in time for Pongal! Needless to say,  MIL who toils in the garden everyday had a very very happy  Pongal!

The year so far...

... has been great!

• Met up with a few friends from college after many many many years! And realised that we still are the 'gang' :D. It is nice to see that nothing has changed between us...
• Managed to meet more friends on a trip to Mumbai
• A very good friend is moving to Chennai - yay!
• Made it to the book fair - twice in fact. The first visit was short where I seemed to naturally gravitate towards the Tulika stall, salivating and buying followed - inevitably!  The second visit, armed with a huge backpack and some more bags was the one where most of the buying happened... CBT was a pleasant discovery - some really nice books there. Tara, Pratham, Young Zubaan were missing. 
• My fav pick this year - Complete volume of Ponniyin Selvan and Silappadikaram with Sujatha's notes - both in Tamizh... 
• Pattu's Fav - Tulika's Panchatantra (she goes 'valavalavala' - The talkative tortoise) and the globe from TTK. She now wants to go to Antartica and wants to know if even her susu will become ice in Antartica!! Of all things she would like to experiment!

We checked out the Sanga kala unavu at Rassa, the restaurant at Krishna Sweets. I was reluctant since the Krishna Sweets Ghee puts me off. But then, I was in for a pleasant surprise - the spread was very interesting starting with 'soma baanam' (translation: Nectar of Gods) made out of panai vellam (palm sugar) and raagi-thandu vadai to a few familiar recipes with an interesting twist. Worth a try!

Happy 2011!

Wishing you all a wonderful year ahead!

I usually don't make resolutions - I have none for this year either. I'm just hoping to become a better person... and probably blog more regularly :)

Cheers!

Comeback Post - Part IV: Trick-a-Treat

Pattu has tasks to complete and she's been whining and making excuses. So, when she wanted noodles for dinner, I firmly told her that noodles will be her treat for completing her tasks.
Somehow she pushed herself (and a lot of others) to complete them.

Noodles for dinner. Happy Pattu.

Pattu finishes quickly without any goading from amma/appa and without spilling (they are precious you see...she takes care not to drop).
The moment we said, "Good Pattu!" she just grabs the opportunity and says, "Amma, since I finished my food can I have Gems?"

Now that's called a 'Treat for a Treat' .... Smaarrrt girrrrlll Pattoo... (Amma thinks in 'Raaberrt' style)

Comeback Post - Part III: In which Pattu shows the Middle Finger

"Ammmmaaaa....see here..." says Pattu with a broad smile on her face.

While the Amma is trying to gather herself and look normal, Pattu's smile fades to an expression of utter dissappointment, "This is my tallest finger amma..."

Why, of course! Oooff!! Thank god I have some more time to deal with this!

The Comeback Post - Part II - In which Pattu appeals to the Prime Minister

I didn't realise that a simple explanation of, 'The Prime Minister takes care of the country and its citizens', that too a very long time back, would lead to this...

Pattu, in the throes of stomach cramps hugs her tummy and cries, "Please help ... Mr Manmohan Singh, please help!"
 
!!!

Come Back Post - Chapter I - Hey!

Hey folks, been away for a while, no particular reason - just been occupied with some important and some inane things. Pattu hasn't really been in the pink of her health last month. I'm hoping the current bout of cold will be the last for this season and we can cheerfully look forward to Santa's gifts... She wants a pair of Yellow Ladder Slide Shoes and a box of Extra Dark pencils.

She has quite an impressive collection of pencils to fill a museum - that sends me on a trip down memory lane..... where pencils used to be rationed and the life of each pencil was carefully tracked. We used the pencils till the last bit of lead while Pattu abandons pencils when they are just 2 inches short. That just shows that it is time to take stock... maybe she'll get a letter from Santa saying she has too many while lot of other kids have none... not sure if it is too early for that kind of letter... still, I think I should try that...

Btw, anyone who's already visited the Dastakari Haat at Kalakshetra? Planning to catch it this weekend if it doesn't rain

Last but not the least, The Little Theatre is back with their pantomime, RipVan Wrinkle at Museum Theatre between 17th to 21st December. They say it is suitable for ages 2+ to 80, last year's experience tells me it would be better to validate that - just a word of caution.
Now, off I go to catch up on all the blogs I missed...

Happy Deepavali

Here's wishing you all a sparkling Deepavali and a safe one as well!

Pattu is excited but still a bit scared of crackers. I think she'll stay indoors and we'll do with a few sparklers and flower pots as usual.
MIL has made some yummy snacks and the deepavali lehiyam is cooking as I type. I used to hate this as a child but I quite like it now, in fact more than the sweets and snacks.

I was talking to Apu yesterday and we were discussing how Deepavali was so different when we were young. The early morning oil bath, who's first to break the dawn with 'saram vedi' (crackers), new dress, bakshanam that was made at home (sweets and snacks), lehiyam and discuss how many burst atom bombs (one of the expensive crackers) and how some were fortunate enough to have two new dresses for deepavali. Budgets for crackers were fixed and we used to ration our stock to last till the night. I used to show off by lighting kuruvi vedi and oosi vedi with my hands (and delight that some boys didn't dare to do that).

All these were novelty at that time.Today, the new clothes and bakshanam are no longer exciting as they are available round the year. Wonder what Deepavali stands for the kids of today... Pattu is too small, so I can't really tell. What probably excites her is that we are all at home with her and there's something special happening...

So, what's your Deepavali story?